One Way Out

E A DAY

ager to be out on the street again the next day. We knew we couldn't keep him cooped up in the flat all the time and of course both Ruth and I were going to be too busy to go out with him every time he went. As for letting

g to take him for three or four dollars a week and we had the money left over from the sale of our household goods to cover that. But this would mean

deciding? And I think I can make time to get out with him. I'll get up earlier

g the heart out of her to send the boy away and made up my mind right then and there that some other solution must be found for the problem. Good L

ound here do in the

not particularly attractive but upon entering I was pleasantly surprised at the air of cleanliness and comfort which prevailed. There were a number of small boys around and in one room I saw them reading and playing checkers. I sought out the secretary and found him a pleasant young fellow though with something of the professional pleasantne

em work," h

thought

do the

of them serve as errand boys

He was evidently struck by the fact that I didn't seem to be in place here. I answered briefly that I had been a clerk all my life, had lost my position a

swered. "Why don't yo

uld he d

ace for him and we have

t home nights

ich begin a little later on. Why do

it was purely a religious organization. But that proposition sounded good. I'd passed th

id cordially. "Come down and see what we're d

," I an

of a prosperous club house. I don't know what I expected but I wouldn't have been startled if I'd found a hall filled with wood

at was astonishingly small. The most of the classes cost nothing after payment of the membership fee of ten dollars. The instructors were, many of them, the same men who gave similar courses at a neighboring college. Not only that, but the hours were so arranged as to accommodate wo

ic. In the summer, special opportunities were offered for out-door sports. Moreover the Association managed summer camps where for a nominal fee the boys could enjoy the life of the woods. A boy must be poor indeed who could not afford most of these opportunities. And if he was out of work the employment bureau conducted here would help him to a position. I came back to the main office wondering still more how in the world I'd ever missed such chances all these years. It was a question I asked myself many times during the

ut for him a summer course in English in which he was a bit backward. I also d

I suspected by the look in her eyes that she had been worrying all

d find a way," s

" I said regretfully. "Then you'd have

d over my mouth. "I've a man for a h

, no matter what happened, then I could be well satisfied. I guess the city directory was right when before now it couldn't

The next day I took him up there and saw him introduced to the various department heads. I paid his membership

I ate a large bowl of oatmeal, a generous supply of flapjacks, made of some milk that had soured, sprinkled with molas

another foreman. At seven o'clock I took my place with a dozen Italians and began to shovel. My muscles were decidedly flabby, and by noon I began to find it hard work. I was glad to stop and eat my lunch. I couldn't remember a meal in five years that tasted as good as that did. My companions watched me curiously-perhaps a bit suspiciously-but they chattered in a foreign tongue amon

w days. I felt the joy of the pioneer-felt the sweet sense of delving in the mother earth. It touched in me some responsive chord that harked back to my ancestors who broke the rocky soil of New England. Of the life of my fellows bustling by on the earth-crust overhead-those fellows of whom so lately I had been one-I was not at all conscious. I might have been at work on some new planet for all they touched my new life. I could see them peering over the wooden rail around our excavation as they stopped to sta

aterfront and there I dived and splashed and swam like a young whale. The sting of the cold salt water was all the further balm I needed. I came out tingling and fit right then for another nine-hour day. But when I came back I t